Best Hotels in Honiara

Came here for a month long business trip. I checked their website out and was excited by the prospect of the hotel. It looks great on the website. Unfortunately that's where it stops. The only upsides of the rooms are that they are spacious and have quite a nice view over the city and water. Downsides: Incredibly run down - rotting door framing, leaking water, broken toilets, old and uncomfortable matresses Expensive: Upwards of $200 NZD per night Wifi: No Wi-Fi in rooms. Patchy wifi that works about half the time in the lobby. There is nothing included in the cost that you might expect from a hotel of this price - no complimentary water (can't drink the tap water), breakfast is $50 SGD for some toast and peanut butter with sachet coffee The staff are friendly and doing their best to make up for the run down and tired facilities, but I wouldn't stay here again. They trade on a captive audience with very few options. The price is obscene for what you actually get.

When we checked in, we paid cash in SBD (local currency) for our room, although our Booking.com invoice quoted USD and AUD. It was only when I got to the room that I realized they overcharged me. I had booked prior on Booking.com, had cancelled and later rebooked at a lower rate. They had charged me the prior booking amount and there was a difference of about $490 SBD. I went to the front desk to get it sorted out and it took almost an hour to get it resolved, then when we had it worked out, they said they did not have access to the cash drawer any more, that I would need to come back the next day. I had them give me a receipt for the refund amount due. The next morning I had to come to the front desk three different times and it all had to be figured out again, even though the amount of overpayment had already been resolved the night before. A waste of almost two hours of my vacation due to their error. The room itself was clean, although the bed was quite small, seemed even smaller than a standard full size mattress. The restaurant was surprisingly expensive, close to what we would pay in Seattle for similar food items. Located on the west side of town so you have to walk to get to anything located more in the center of Honiara (restaurants, museum, shopping, etc.).

Stayed for two weeks in May-June 2023. Positive: -- extremely central location, walking distance to almost everything (Honiara is not very big) -- super friendly and helpful staff -- the bento box in the Japanese restaurant is surprisingly good -- powerful air conditioning, which you will appreciate after a day in Honiara -- has a generator for when the power goes off (which happens) Neutral: -- has all the basics: refrigerator, aircon, TV all worked fine -- no issues with cleanliness, maid service every day -- no issues with water pressure or heat -- swimming pool is small but clean, I did laps there most nights with no problems -- laundry service is pricey but otoh is lightning fast: my laundry came back ironed in well under 24 hours -- make sure your door is firmly closed or you'll get mosquitos Negative: -- wi-fi is bad: slow, sometimes drops, and charges you extra for use beyond 100 MB /day. If you can, get a local SIM card and hotspot off that. It's cheaper and faster. -- breakfast is not free and is pretty miserable. It's 100 SBD (about US $13) for corn flakes, stale bread, coffee, and fruit. The fruit is fresh and local but that's about all I can say for it. After a few days I just started going next door to the Breakwater Cafe, which gives a much nicer array of breakfast offerings for about the same price. -- there's a club next door, which can be loud on weekends. It didn't bother me but if you're sensitive to that sort of thing, be aware. -- there's a small beach right behind the hotel... which is covered with trash. You probably wouldn't want to swim there anyway (the Mendana is in the middle of town and very near the port) but it's nasty to look out your window at a garbage-strewn beach. Surely this could be fixed? -- no exercise room Basically this is the medium-price hotel in Honiara. The Heritage and Coral Sea are nicer but more expensive (usually -- prices in Honiara can fluctuate a lot). I found the Mendana perfectly okay. The only major negative was the wifi. Fix that and I'd give back half a star.

Sanalae Apartments (pronounced san-a-lie), is a unique Solomon Islands boutique accommodation and have already developed an excellent reputation! Our holiday lodging is located in East Honiara on Panatina Ridge in a quiet area overlooking Honiara Bay. We offer a modern Pacific style accommodation with specially crafted furniture made from local timbers.All of our self-catering apartments include crockery, cutlery, glassware, and cooking utensils. Deluxe apartments also feature a sofa and chairs, dining table and chairs, full kitchen and full sized fridge, stove and microwave, ensuite with vanity, toilet and shower over a full bath. In the Garden Apartments there is a large kitchenette with fridge, hotplates and microwave plus an ensuite with vanity toilet and shower.Sanalae Apartments are self-contained, and the Garden rooms are fully serviced, making us an ideal location for business travelers, long-term stays, and holiday makers. Sanalae is a local dialect from the Western Province and means “paving the way to much greater things.Sanalae Apartment Honiara is a 2-minute drive from Panatina Plaza Shopping Centre and a local restaurant. Honiara Central Market is a 10-minutes drive away, and Honiara International Airport is a 7-minute drive.